A Latvian man tried to smuggle his wife into Britain inside a suitcase after she was refused a visa, a court heard.
Bogden Croitor’s car was stopped by immigration officials as he arrived at the car port in Dover, Kent, having caught a ferry from Calais in France.
After finding a suitcase in his car, the officers opened it up to discover his wife hiding inside.
A court heard that Croiter, 30, had permission to live in UK but his Moldovan-born wife had twice been refused the right to come to the country.
He later told officials how he had travelled to Calais in October last year to spend the weekend with his wife and claimed she suggested hiding in the suitcase, Canterbury Crown Court heard.
Natasha Spreadborough, for Croitor, said his wife had made numerous applications for a visa but was refused each time.
He was given a 14 month jail sentence suspended for two years, told to do 100 hours of unpaid work for the community and pay £400 costs.
But Judge Adele Williams suspended the jail sentence after he admitted the charge.
She told him: ‘You could have absolutely no complaint if I had sent you to prison straight away because those who commit this offence normally always go to jail immediately.
‘But I take the view that the way you committed this offence does have extraordinary mitigating circumstances attached to it.’
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